


Home for the Holidays

by liairene



Series: A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [26]
Category: Emma - Jane Austen, Persuasion - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Christmas, F/M, Modern Era, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27881758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liairene/pseuds/liairene
Summary: There's no place quite like home for the holidays, and there's no one better to be with at the holidays than your family...even if they can drive you batty at times.
Relationships: Elinor Dashwood/Edward Ferrars, Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, George Knightley/Emma Woodhouse
Series: A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/908481
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Home for the Holidays

**Author's Note:**

> I've never done this before, but I felt like 2020 was the year that we all needed as much Christmas joy as we could get. So my December writing goal is to publish a Christmas Highbury tale each Friday in December for you. I hope you enjoy!

Like any small town, Highbury has its own particular holiday traditions. The town Christmas tree lighting and the arrival of Santa Claus are the weekend after Thanksgiving. The town decorated the streets with Christmas lights and evergreen garlands. Shops and restaurants went all out to decorate their windows.

At the Knit Wit, Elsa always had a Christmas tree made out of books in one big window and a larger real tree decorated with literary-themed ornaments in the other. Chris and Erik had a culinary theme for their tree at the Green Dragon. The tree at Audrey’s Closet was always themed around the Pantone Color of the Year. Thomas and Mary Frances Bennet always decorated The Longbourn as it would have been in the early 1900s. There were church choir concerts and band concerts. A brass quintet regularly played in the town gazebo. The Miss Merry Christmas pageant was held at the Longbourn every year. (Mary Frances Bennet had never forgiven her second eldest daughter for refusing to ever participate in the pageant.)

* * *

November 15 found Will Darcy sitting at a table in the Knit Wit with James Dashwood. “So why exactly are you a judge in the Miss Merry Christmas pageant this year?”

James snorted. “They wanted a young face to show that the pageant is relevant to the younger generation.”

James was twenty-two, about five years older than the average pageant contestant, a fact that Will found a bit unusual. “Emma asked you?”

“Begged actually.”

Will shook his head. “What is she giving you in exchange?”

James laughed. “She’s buying Marianne’s Christmas gift for me.”

The older man nodded and smiled. “Nicely done. Did you suggest that or did she?”

“It was my idea. She aimed lower, but I made her raise her bid.”

“You’re a wise man.”

James raised his coffee cup in salute. “I learned from the best.”

“Is this the beginning of your ‘Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned from George Knightley’ speech?”

That elicited another snort. “George Knightley is not the only good man who has passed through my life. My father was an exceptional man. Chris, Ed, and Erik are all good men. You’re okay, most days.”

“Gee, thanks. I feel loved.”

“You’ve got enough people in your life to love you. It’s good for you to get a little pushback every now and then.”

“Have you met my wife? Have you ever tried to put my daughter to bed when she wants to run around her room?”

“Most of the time, Clara is delightful.”

Will looked over at his daughter who was sitting on her aunt Camilla’s lap in a large plum loveseat near another window. Cam was reading to the thirteen-month-old girl who was clinging firmly to a stuffed penguin as well as the three Kingsleigh girls who were all snuggled around her and Clara.

“She is, but she is decidedly her mother’s daughter.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” James replied. “Elsa is incomparable.”

Will adjusted the sleeves of his gray sweater. “I’m well aware of that. And I’m glad that my daughter is also Elsa’s daughter.”

“But some days you wish that she had a little less of her mother’s spirit?”

“Only when she’s throwing a tantrum in the middle of Weston’s, James.”

“That really gives life to that whole ‘not today, not in this grocery store’ meme.”

Will shrugged. “I suppose. But back to Emma and the pageant…”

James sighed. “She asked. I said yes. You know that my sister won that pageant, don’t you?”

“Nora?”

“Ha!” James’s laugh was almost a bark. “Marianne.”

“Who won the year Nora was in it?”

“Annie.”

“Annie was Miss Merry Christmas? How did I not know this?”

“Gwen won the year before, so The Great Mary Frances really wanted Elsa to be in it. But Elsa refused because she didn’t want to be in the parade. Instead, she put all of her energy into training Annie to win it in the hopes that Annie’s parents would pay attention to her.”

“Let me guess. It didn’t work.”

James snorted. “Have you ever met Annie’s parents? Wait. I take that back. Of course you haven’t.”

“I’ve heard about them.”

“Then you probably know enough.”

Will nodded.

“Nora has always suspected that Emma had a hand in making sure that she didn’t win either.”

“Let me guess. Emma was the runner-up?”

The college senior nodded. “You know what Emma’s like. People in this town adore her. She’s smart and talented.”

“And she’s incredibly calm in front of a crowd.”

“Exactly, that was the thing that Elsa coached Annie on the most.”

“You remember this?”

James smiled. “Most of the coaching occurred in my house. I was seven, but I got to watch the magical team of Elsinore work together to turn Annie into Miss Merry Christmas.”

* * *

The Miss Merry Christmas Pageant was held the first Friday of December every year. The first public appearance for the new Miss Merry Christmas was always the following evening at the town tree lighting. James, relieved to be liberated from his judging duties, spent Saturday afternoon and evening with George Knightley and baby Theo, the Darcy family, and his sister Nora and her husband. “Is Marianne coming?”

Nora shrugged before leaning against her husband’s chest. “She said she wasn’t sure. She didn’t like the idea of having to make yet another public appearance in this town as a single woman.”

“She’s not single,” Elsa sighed as she fiddled with the buckle of Clara’s carrier. “Her boyfriend just didn’t come to town with her.”

“You know my sister,” Nora replied with a sigh. “Being without a man is being single until there is a ring on her finger.”

“Her boyfriend is spending the weekend with his family,” James said flatly. “He’s still her boyfriend; he’s just not in town this weekend.”

“I’ll let you try to explain that to our sister.”

James glared at his older sister who just smirked before looking up at her husband. “Ed?”

Ed Ferrars looked down at his wife. “Yes, my darling?”

“Nothing,” she replied with a contented smile. “I’m just glad that you’re here.”

“Where else would I be? I haven’t missed a tree lighting since I moved to Highbury.”

“I know. It’s just nice to be able to share this with my husband this year.”

Ed smiled and kissed his wife’s forehead. “Nora, you know how much I love this kind of stuff.”

Before Nora could say anything, Emma materialized next to her husband. “Let me smell my baby. Remind me that there are good things in the world.”

“That bad?” George queried.

“My father is driving me out of my mind,” she sighed. “The tree lighting is the same every year. It’s as formulaic as the St. Paul’s Christmas pageant. Everyone knows how it goes, and the stupid routine is part of the stupid tradition. But my charming father is convinced that something will go wrong and we all need to panic about every single one of the potential mishaps that could occur. And I know that this is just how Daddy is, but it’s the tree lighting. The parade goes through town, he says a few words, the choir sings, Miss Merry Christmas smiles and waves, St. Nicholas makes his big entrance, Daddy lights the tree, and then you go to the Knit Wit for hot chocolate. It’s not rocket science. Now give me my baby.”

George obligingly handed two-month-old Theo to Emma. He smiled as his wife visibly relaxed as soon as their son was in her arms. “It’ll be find, Em. Do you want me to go deal with Henry for a while?”

“Oh, would you?” she replied. Long before he was her husband, George had been brilliant at handling Henry Woodhouse in a way that his daughter wasn’t. Emma was good with her father, but when it came to things like her wedding or the Highbury tree lighting inevitably he found a way to try her patience and upset her.

George smiled at his wife. “You and Theo stay here with these lovely people. I’ll go calm Henry down.”

“You’re the best,” she called after him. “Elsa, what did I do to deserve him?”

Elsa shrugged. “What do any of us do to deserve our husbands?”

“Well, I’m not sure that Ed deserves Nora,” Emma replied.

“I’m not sure that anyone deserves our Nora,” James inserted.

“But I chose him, and he is what I want,” Nora stated firmly leaning into Ed’s chest. “And in the end, that’s all that really matters.”

* * *

After the tree was lit up, much of the crowd made their way to the Knit Wit where hot chocolate and tree-shaped cookies were available for a special tree-lighting price. Elsa clad in a dark red dress and Annie in a dark green dress were behind the counter. Holiday music tinkled through the speakers, and the town’s St. Nicholas (a well-disguised Charles Knightley, George’s uncle) was seated on a large burgundy armchair greeting children. Parents happily took photos of their children seated on Charles’s lap.

“This is why I love this town,” Ed told Nora as they stood by the tree of books.

“Because you like Christmas?”

“No.” He shook his head with a smile. “Well, I mean, I do like Christmas, but it’s more than that. I like the people, the joy, the enthusiasm…you know, the spirit. There’s just something about this place. It’s warm and friendly. It feels like home.”

“Well, you’ve lived here for what? Five years? Six years?”

“Six,” he replied.

“Then I think that it has become your adopted home.”

He smiled. “I think that Highbury is home for me in a way that Lambton never was growing up. I don’t miss Lambton. I miss Highbury when I’m not here.”

“It’s not like you have much to miss there,” Nora commented. “Who do you even have there anymore?”

“Well, Grandma and Grandpa Ferrars are in Arizona, my Darcy grandparents are gone, Gina is in California, and Will is here. The only people in Lambton are my mom, Anna, and Rob. And I don’t really miss any of them.”

“They haven’t given you any reason to miss them,” his wife replied.

“That’s a harsh statement from you, Nora.”

“I can’t be sweet all of the time.”

Ed smiled. “I like you this way.”

She blushed faintly. “What way?”

“Spunky,” he replied. “There’s nothing wrong with a little spunk.”

“Just not Elsa level spunk?”

“There’s nothing wrong with Elsa level spunk. I just didn’t marry into Elsa level spunk. I married into Nora level.”

“What’s the difference?”

He shrugged. “Personality, I guess. They’re both equally delightful. They’re just different in the way that any two people are going to be different.”

Nora shook her head. “That sounds like a copout.”

“Nah, it’s not. I’m saying that you’re both spunky and delightful in your own way and Elsa is both of those things in her way. You’re you, and she’s her. You’re both wonderful people, and I wouldn’t trade either of you for the other.”

“Your life is probably quieter with me than it would be with her.”

“Yeah, but I’d have better sandwiches if I was with her.”

Nora looked at him quizzically. “You still get those sandwiches.”

“Yeah, but I have to pay for them now.”

His wife shook her head. “You’re absurd.”

“I get it from Will.”

Nora blinked. “How do you figure that one?”

Ed’s thin shoulders jerked in a quick shrug. “I’m Ed. He’s Will. We’re basically made from the same genetic material. We’re two halves of the same whole.”

Before Nora could even begin to formulate an answer to that, George appeared next to them with Madeleine Kingsleigh on his hip. “Okay, guys, I need your input on something.”

“Yeah?” Nora’s face brightened as Madeleine’s mother and older sisters joined them.

“Alice and I are having a disagreement.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Ed looked back and forth between Alice and George. “About what?”

“So, you know who Santa is, right?” George began.

“Yeah, he’s…” Ed began before a well-aimed sharp elbow from Alice kept him from revealing that the jolly man in the red suit was anyone other than the North Pole’s most famous resident. “Yeah, he’s Santa. Santa is Santa.”

“Right,” George affirmed. “So, Alice thinks that it will be harder for her kids to take a picture with Santa.”

“Because there are three of them,” Alice amended.

“Whatever, they’re older,” her cousin replied. “Whereas I think that it will be harder for Theo because he’s only two months old and he’ll think that Santa is a stranger.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “He’s two months old. He won’t care. It’s not like having your ten-month-old take a picture with Santa. Trust me. I’ve been there.”

“But the girls are older. It will be calmer for them.”

“You say that, but you don’t know that. Do you remember last Christmas?”

George gave his cousin an odd look. “No, I wasn’t paying attention to little kids and Santa last Christmas. Why would I?”

“Because you’re a good uncle and godfather?” Alice suggested.

“Ed, Nora,” George persisted. “What do you think?”

Nora took a deep breath before beginning diplomatically. “You’re not going to like it, George.”

He glared slightly at her. “Come on, Nora. Think about my kid. You know what he’s like.”

“Where is your kid, anyway?” Ed inserted.

“Diaper change, but that’s not the point here. Don’t you think that he’s more likely to throw a fit than any of these three?”

Six-year-old Josie looked up at the grownups. “What are you even talking about? Mommy, when are we going to go see Santa?”

“Mommy, where’s Grandpa?” Charlotte piped up. “Grandma is over dare with Uncle Chris, but where’s Grandpa?”

Alice raised her eyebrows slightly. “That’s a good question, Lottie. I’m not sure.”

“What about my question?” Josie persisted. “Is that a good question? When are we going to see Santa?”

Her mother smiled thinly. “Right now sounds like a great time, Josie. We’ll leave Uncle George here to bother poor Uncle Ed and Aunt Nora while he waits for Auntie Emma. And we’re going to get in line to see Santa.”

“Yay!” Josie squealed eagerly.

“And Grandma and Uncle Chris?” Lottie queried.

Her mother smiled. “They’re in line getting hot chocolate. I think that they’ll see Santa later.”

“But I want hot chocolate too!” Josie said.

“After Santa,” Alice told her firmly. “Or maybe, if you’re lucky, Uncle Chris will get some for you.”

“Okay,” the six-year-old said. “Now, let’s go see Santa.”

George shook his head as they walked away. “Don’t tell me that my son is going to be like that someday.”

“Well,” Nora said slowly. “He is Emma’s son too.”

Her friend looked down at his black boots. “Oh dear, I didn’t think about it that way.”

Ed patted George’s back. “Don’t worry. It’s only really going to be a problem for the next eighteen or so years. After that, it’ll be mostly fine.”

George simply glowered at his friend.

* * *

In the end, it was Theo who had a harder time taking a photo with Santa than the Kingsleigh girls. While the girls were happy and comfortable with the jolly elf, Theo was hungry by the time his turn came around. And so, it took far longer to get him happy and situated than anyone had expected.

“You owe me,” George told Alice afterwards.

She shook her head. “I was wrong this time. I admit it. I didn’t expect Madeleine to go along with it so easily.”

“It probably helped that her sisters were there,” Chris Brandon suggested. “She wasn’t alone with Santa.”

Alice nodded. “That’s true. That’s very true.”

“Well, I’m sure that Theo will have siblings someday, but that day is a good while off yet,” George told them.

“That’s fair,” his cousin told him. “But in the present moment, I should really get these over-sugared girls home and to bed.”

George looked at his wife seated in a nearby chair with Theo sleeping blissfully in the carrier strapped to Emma’s chest. “That sounds wise. We should do that too with our little munchkin.”

Emma smiled faintly at her husband. “We’re ready whenever you are.”

* * *

At the end of the evening, Nora sat in the burgundy armchair holding a sleeping Clara Darcy and watching her friends leave.

“So your sister never showed?” Annie asked as she wiped nearby tables.

Nora shook her head. “No, she told me that she didn’t want people to think that she was lonely and pathetic at Christmastime.”

“She went through all the trouble of coming up here for the weekend and then she skipped the main event of the weekend?”

“Yep.”

Annie sighed. “I don’t get it. I always went to town events like this when I was single. And she isn’t even single; her boyfriend just couldn’t come on this visit with her.”

“Yep, I know.”

“Well, all that I can say is that she’s missing out on a fun evening.”

“It’s her loss,” Ed said.

“Yep,” Nora said again.

“And hopefully next year she chooses to come whether or not her significant other is here with her,” Elsa said. “Because let’s face it, folks; she missed out on some damn good hot chocolate.”

“And brownies,” Ed added. “Those brownies are amazing.”

Elsa smiled at him. “Thank you. They’re my pride and joy.”

“I thought that was Clara.”

“No, she’s the light of my life. The brownies are my pride and joy.”

“Darling, sometimes you’re absurd,” Will told his wife.

“According to Ed, she gets it from you,” Nora quipped.

The room dissolved into laughter.

* * *

A/N: The end...for now


End file.
